
(The above photo is of the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel taken in December 2008.)
A team led by PN Hoffman Inc. and Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse spent two years getting control of a site on the Southwest waterfront and lining up partnerships before asking the city to contribute its long-promised portion of land for the project.The development offers 700 residential units, three office buildings, three hotels, more than 300,000 square feet of retail, a maritime museum and 10 acres of public space, including four piers — an entire new neighborhood for Southwest D.C.
After months of fits and starts, D.C. Councilman Kwame Brown, chairman of the Economic Development Committee, and Neil Albert, the deputy mayor for economic development, came together on an agreement the council passed unanimously during its last day of voting for the year. Next step for the development team: getting financing.
Now D.C.-based PN Hoffman Inc. and its partner, Baltimore-based Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, will start the new year with a huge challenge: landing financing for a project that could entail 770 housing units, 700,000 square feet of offices, three hotels, 280,000 square feet of retail and 150,000 square feet of cultural attractions. “This very important project will be a landmark for our region and carries enormous responsibility,” said Hoffman, chief executive officer, in a statement released by the development team. “Our collective concern for the success of this project is very real, and we are pleased that all sides have come together. We can now focus on the matter at hand — moving this vision forward.”
It’s not clear how the delay will affect the development team’s ability to get financing in this troubled market. Chances are, it probably wouldn’t have made a difference. But symbolically, the kerfluffle in the Wilson Building speaks volumes: How can the city continue to ask private developers to invest time and money in risky projects when it repeatedly beats them down? Our president-elect has earned the nickname “no drama Obama” for his unflappable nature, his ability to play politics at a level high above pettiness and for his focus on the big picture. Perhaps D.C.’s officials will be inspired to emulate these qualities, remembering that turf wars are usually more about ego than substance and that political grandstanding is not leadership.
Still, planning is still embryonic. And given that the project isn’t likely to begin construction until at least 2012 – not to mention the belt-tightening state of the economy – is seems reasonable to wonder where and when the first of Hoffman-Streuver’s cash will be spent. “The next two years will be focused on completing the design of the project, working with the community, and submitting for the PUD,” says Seaman. “We are confident that the capital market will have improved by the time we are ready to put a shovel in the ground.”
This is the 6th Street frontage of the Arena Stage site taken on November 22, 2008.
The rendering above is the metro plaza in front of the new SW Safeway under construction at Waterfront Station, courtesy of Vornado.
This is a rendering of the new SW Safeway, courtesy of Vornado.
Here's the exterior of the MVT Safeway.
The new SW Safeway may include a Starbucks and a dry cleaners, similar to the MVT Safeway. The SW Safeway Starbucks would be the 5th Starbucks to open in Southwest during the past few years. The other four Starbucks stores are at Capital Gallery (600 Maryland Avenue), The Portals (1201 Maryland Avenue), the Holiday Inn (550 C Street), and the Small Business Administration building at Federal Center SW (409 3rd Street). It would be the first SW store to locate south of the SE-SW Freeway.
2010 can't come soon enough if this is what we will get at the new SW Safeway. In the meantime, the MVT Safeway is open and just a short drive away.